June 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rebecca Louviere, CSP Communications Director
225-382-3756

Originally posted on www.sportfishingpolicy.com

Washington, D.C. – June 28, 2017 – Today, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the 2017 Regional Fishery Management Council (RFMC) appointments and has shown that recreational fishing and boating are important to the Trump Administration. The appointments of Steve Heins of New York to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council; Chester Brewer of Florida to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council; and Phil Dyskow of Florida, Dr. Bob Shipp of Alabama, and Dr. Greg Stunz of Texas to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council are a solid affirmation that the Administration is taking federal fisheries management and conservation in the right direction.

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The announcement today of action to extend the Gulf of Mexico recreational red snapper season is a welcome boon to anglers who have been painted into a corner by a federal fisheries management system that does not understand us, and would often just rather ignore us.

On the plus side, anglers are right to be encouraged by the willingness of this Administration and the Department of Commerce to improve recreational access to a historically robust Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery. This alone is a tremendous achievement. Continue Reading

Originally submitted to the Houston Chronicle as an op-ed.

Public oyster reefs in Texas are suffering. Increasing demand and diminishing supply have put our public reefs at risk. The compounding effects of increased fishing pressure in smaller areas, hurricanes, tropical storms, droughts, flood events and unscrupulous actions by some within the commercial oyster industry have resulted in unprecedented destruction and loss of our public oyster reefs. As the public oyster season drew to a close this past April, nearly 70% of the public shellfish harvest areas were closed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) because more than 65% of the oysters in their samples were “undersized”. This statistic alone should serve as a wakeup call for us to do more to conserve the resource. Continue Reading